Transfield Services has halted use of the type of boomlift involved in the death of an Electrix worker on the HVDC reconductoring project near Wellington yesterday. Electrix general manager Robert Ferris says all use of the machines, supplied by Transfield, has stopped while fuller investigations get underway.

"There's been an initial instruction made that all use of this type of machinery is to stop," he says. "We treat safety very seriously. We're mobilising people from around the country to go down to carry out an investigation. We have to find out as soon as possible exactly what has happened here, and then obviously take the appropriate measures to make sure it doesn't happen again."

One worker was killed and another seriously injured yesterday when the machine they were using - an industrial grade cherry picker - toppled. The pair were harnessed to the machine at the time and could have been thrown further otherwise, according to the paramedics who attended the accident on the hills near Makara.

Transfield contract

The pair were part of a crew of about eight staff Electrix provided to help Transfield with the reconductoring work. They are usually based in Palmerston North.

Electrix hasn't released the names of either of the men as they were still trying to contact the family of one of them late yesterday. The injured man has fractures in both legs, suspected broken ribs and a bruised or collapsed lung, Ferris says.

Transpower is replacing the conductors on parts of the HVDC link between Oteranga Bay, on the coast south of Makara, and Haywards as part of the upgrade for the new Pole 3.

Work will resume on the northern part of the project between Haywards and Johnsonville on Tuesday, spokesperson Adele Fitzpatrick says. A time frame for resuming work between Makara and Oteranga Bay is yet to be determined.

"The crews have been stood down. Next week any activity will be about securing the site and then working with Electrix and Transfield to decide what the next steps are."

Police and Labour Department inspectors were at the site yesterday as part of their investigations. Transpower will organise an independent investigation and is likely to go outside the company for that, Fitzpatrick says.

Impact

Ferris says the accident, the day after the company topped the prize list at the New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards, has devastated the company, which employs more than 900 staff across its distribution, transmission and gas units.

"We've gone from an extreme high to an extreme low," he says. "People are greatly affected all around the country."

"At the moment our focus is on providing assistance to the families of the two men involved, plus also providing whatever assistance and counselling we can to those employees who need it, particularly the team that were down in Wellington at the time.

"It's an absolute tragedy and we're going to have to work our way through this."